Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) (20 page)

“Yes, do come and sit down, Earl Harding,” Agatha said softly. “Plates are on the sideboard, and food is under the covered dishes. Would you like some coffee?”

Hades nodded dumbly. He was like a lamb to the slaughter. He slowly piled bacon and thin slices of bread onto his plate, and sat down opposite the ladies.

“So.” Agatha stared at him intently. “You have met Melissa before, I think?”

Hades glanced at Agatha’s innocent face, and at Victoria’s carefully averted head.

He bent his head towards his food and answered as he buttered his bread. “I danced with her once at a ball.”

“Left her standing in the middle of the dance floor I heard.” Hades glanced up. Agatha held her knife as though she wanted to gut him.

“I wasn’t to know that she can barely see without glasses.”

“Miss Sumner wears glasses?” Victoria and Agatha chorused in unison.

Hades sat back. He was going to be roasted like a kipper now. He licked his lips. “I believe I have seen her with some spectacles.” They would have to prize any more out of him with crow bars if they wanted to take it further.

But Victoria just huffed and sat back, exchanging a long glance with Agatha. “Spectacles. I had
heard
they were all the rage in the privacy of one’s home. Perhaps I have seen her with some bronze ones…”

“Brass or silver actually,” Hades said absently as he stared out of the window. Bill was riding up the drive on a formidable cart horse. He made an incongruous sight.

“Really, Earl Harding.” Agatha laid her knife on the table with a clatter and examined him closely. “I have not seen Miss Sumner today, but I find her very interesting to have around.”

Victoria nodded in agreement. “If I were a man I would not hesitate to further my acquaintance with her,” she remarked airily.

Hades drew in a breath. “I think it all depends,” he said slowly, “if that man was allowed by the said lady to further his acquaintance.”

Victoria paused in dabbing her napkin to her mouth. “I think that if a man is open and honest with a lady, then he might find out all sorts of interesting things.”

Hades was tired with the verbal sparring. He had finished his bacon and toast in mere minutes. Draining the coffee cup that had appeared unnoticed by his elbow, he stood. “Excuse me, ladies. I must see a man about a horse. I believe Bill Standish has arrived.” Cocking a head on one side, he patted his stomach. “Perhaps I might see you at tea? I heard a rumor that there might be cream doughnuts on offer.”

He smiled broadly at the deep flush that appeared on Victoria’s face. Two could play at her game.

Henry grinned at him in the hall. “An enjoyable breakfast with the ladies?”

“Now I know why you were in the study.”

Henry laughed and opened the front door. “Bill has gone straight to the stables. I’ll come with you.”

At the stables Bill was already kneeling in the straw of the stall where the fallen Acorn lay in the hay. He looked up as they entered the stable.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before,” he said. “It is nothing natural.” He ran his hand along the forelock of Acorn’s front legs. “There are scratches here, as though the horse was kicking out at something and kept hitting the wall of the stall. There are corresponding marks in the walls over there.” Bill pointed to a series of gashes on the wall of the stall.

Hades shook his head. “Could poison have done this?”

“Possibly,” Bill said, studying the rigor of the horse. “But I have never come across anyone wanting to poison a horse before. We would have to find an expert in plants to see what might have caused such an effect.”

Hades frowned grimly. “I know just such a person. And they are very close at hand.” Had she poisoned his horse to get back at him?
Had she truly thought that he had sent down the Society of Apothecaries on her? Was that why she didn’t want him to touch her because she had intended on poisoning his horse?

He swallowed.
Melissa isn’t like that
. She loved Arturo, his dog, she was kind to people. Why did he persist in believing that she was the culprit when in reality there were far greater threats to his mortality, the Viper included?

The Viper
… “Where is the man that Henry said I should meet?”

Bill stood slowly and wiped his massive hands on his coat. “He’s coming in on the next favorable tide. Renard is delivering him.”

Henry snorted. “We’ve had this before, though. Renard delivers us someone that can give us information and they turn out to be spies themselves.”

“I can’t leave any stone overturned,” Hades said. He rubbed his eyes.

Bill kicked at the straw surrounding the horse’s body. “Renard’s due in two night’s time. You should say you are representative of the Viper. This man believes that he is going to negotiate with you for the list.”

“Where will I meet him?

Bill snorted. “As with all of Anglethorpe’s connections, we’ll bring him up here to the stables. Henry has one specially for those visiting… overnight.”

“I’ll just make sure Freddie stays away this time.” Henry scratched his head and frowned.

“And in the meantime I will go and find my expert in poisons,” Hades said grimly.

CHAPTER 22

Bones aching and tired beyond belief, Melissa arrived back in London. She had been away for a total of five days, only one of which had been spent outside of a coach. In fact she couldn’t work out where she had been less comfortable, the escape from London in the crowded post coach, the excruciating encounter with Hades and having to act as normal for a day, or the journey back with aching limbs and a satchel full of extremely poisonous henbane.

She had agreed with Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs that she would be away for two weeks. She would find no one at the house in Bayswater, apart from a possible welcoming committee from those dratted men from the Apothecary Society.

But she knew somewhere where no one would expect her to go.

The house in Hill Street in Mayfair was just as she remembered. Briskly, she rapped at the door. Carter opened the door and stared at her.

She stared back at him.

The butler stepped to one side and looked behind her.

“Are you going to let me in or not, Carter?” she said.

“The earl isn’t with you?” Carter frowned. “I’m afraid he is not at home, Miss Sumner.”

“Isn’t that lucky?” she said, taking a step forward and pushing Carter into the house. “My bags are on the path. I’ve come to stay for a few days. I believe I shall have my old room.”

Carter stumbled backwards in the hall. “What about the earl?”

“Oh he is still down in Brambridge,” she said airily. “He’ll be back shortly.”

“I don’t know about this…” But Carter was interrupted by the arrival of Arturo throwing himself down the stairs and jumping up at Melissa.

With a laugh Melissa carefully placed her satchel on the hall table and picked up the small dog, giving it a cuddle. “Look! Arturo knew I was coming back.”

“Is that Miss Sumner we hear?” Carlos and Charles appeared at the foot of the servants’ stairs. One held a whisk in his hand, the other a spoon. “She is back to stay? Oh happy days!” The cooks disappeared back down the stairs like rabbits down a hole. Carter stood back helplessly and let Melissa in to the hall.

“I shall have tea in the study, and then I shall retire to my room, Carter.” Melissa swept into the study and stopped.

It was as if time had stood still. Two chairs still sat in front of the fire. The green chair now showed wear and tear from where a heavy man had sat in it, day in day out. The leather chair was still at the angle she had pulled it whilst trying to maximize heat from the fire, and keep an eye on Hades. Even the last book that she had read was opened halfway on the small table.

“My lord was very particular that we not move anything,” Carter said, appearing silently at her shoulder. Your room has also not been touched since you stayed with us.”

Melissa had nothing she could say. The bravado and bluster that she had employed to enter the house left her in an instant. She crossed to the leather chair and sank into it. Carter nodded sharply.

“I will just fetch some coffee and biscuits, Miss Sumner.” He left the study quietly and gently closed the door.

Why had he done it? Why had Hades given the order that everything should be left the same? She had been without him for two weeks. He should have erased everything about her stay from his presence.

She swallowed. And to think that she had purposefully put him away from her.

Melissa settled more firmly into the chair. There was no time for maudlin thoughts. She had a plan to put in place, and that started with preparing the henbane so that she could use it.

Carter didn’t protest as Melissa slept in her customary room that night, nor when he served her breakfast the next morning.

“Carter.” She caught him by the sleeve as he passed her to take the last of the breakfast to the kitchen. “Why don’t you and Charles and Carlos have the day off?”

“We couldn’t possibly—”

“Of course you can. I can mind the house. When was the last time you all had the day off?”

“Well, a very long time but…”

“There you go then.”

In fact it was easy. Carlos and Charles needed no extra persuasion, but Carter elected to remain in the house in his rooms as they left. As soon as the doors closed to the empty kitchen, Melissa took her precious satchel down the stairs and pulled on her leather gloves once more.

She had tried her hardest not to crush the delicate plant. Turning the satchel inside out, she decanted the mangled henbane into a large copper pan and added some water.

The fire in the stove was still roaring. She opened up one of the stovetop rings and set the copper on top. She needed to bring the henbane to the boil in order to gain all of the juices from the plant.

After two hours of boiling, Melissa found a piece of kindling and fished out the now unrecognizable plant matter from the copper and threw it back in her satchel. She pushed the whole satchel into the stove fire and watched as it burned. 

It took three hours and repeated warnings to Carter not to enter the kitchen before she had a thimble’s worth of liquid. She poured the powerful henbane into a tiny empty glass salt jar which she carried carefully back to the study. Ignoring Carter’s knocking on the door, she searched Hades’ desk rapidly, finding his wax and some long tapers sitting on top of some papers and a torn parcel of well bound books. Without stopping to examine the parcel, Melissa lit a taper in the fire place, softened the sealing wax and dripped it around the glass stopper on the small bottle. She tamped the soft wax into place with her finger and set the bottle on the desk for the wax to cool.

Hurrying past the flustered Carter, she ran back into the kitchen and carefully poked the remains of the fire to make sure nothing was left of the satchel. She threw more water and soap into the copper and meticulously boiled the pot until all traces of henbane had been cleaned away.

As she laid the copper boiling pot back into its customary place, she folded her arms. Now she just needed to send a message to the Viper, and see what happened. Her shoulders slumped; she hadn’t thought that far. She had fixated too much on the poison, the feeling of euphoria when the Viper was no longer around.

Melissa sat back in the leather chair and gazed at the study around her. After her initial flurry of activity, the next two days had passed slowly. Once again she was held in the house, but this time it was of her own choice, indecision. She had not wanted to be seen leaving the mansion house, nor be caught by the Society of Apothecaries men. Carlos and Charles had even sent her endless cakes and sandwiches, although it was noticeable that they fell short in the dinner department.

Worst of all, she had finished reading all the books on Hades’ small flora and fauna shelf. Melissa tapped her foot and toyed with her coffee cup. There were the other shelves of course; after all she had quite enjoyed the book by Cicero, and delving in and out of the strange little Chinese pamphlet. But none of it quite grabbed her. The only reason she had been interested in the books was because Hades had been interested in them.

Hmm. Books that Hades was specifically interested in—
of course
. Getting up from her chair, Melissa moved behind the desk and opened the deep bottom drawer on the left hand chest. She carefully lifted out the papers which were doodled with pictures of snakes and pulled out the parcel of leather-bound books she had found when searching for the wax. Pulling deftly at the string on the parcel, she pulled off the torn paper and sat for a while in silence, staring at the books that fell from her hand.

They were water-stained and slightly moldy, but she had already known in her mind’s eye what they would have looked like beforehand. “Herbology” by Arthur Sumner, “Exotic Flowers of the Alpes” by Arthur Sumner, and “Common Garden Plants” by Arthur Sumner lay in front of her. The books, her father’s books that she had missed so terribly when they had gone. Why did Hades have them? Didn’t he realize that they could have been one of the books that the Viper was searching for? If only he had told her he had them.

Melissa stroked a finger down the engraving of one of the covers. She hadn’t told Hades that the books were missing; she had held it back because he had held back information himself.
Oh gracious
, just as she had held herself back and teased him when he had visited her in Bayswater. With a muffled sob, she leant forward and shook her head. Wiping a hand to her nose, she picked up the books and trudged back to her chair by the fire. There was no time to think about her relationship with Hades now. Somewhere in the books would be the clue to why the Viper kept menacing her.

She began with ‘Herbology’, reading every page, every piece of writing. Hours passed, and soon it was evening. She barely noticed as Carter tiptoed around her lighting candles so that she could see. He tutted as she moved closer to the fire when the candles blew out, but she just waved her hand at him.
What was it about the books the Viper wanted?